I recently had a pretty bad fall that has resulted in a lower back injury. Compaction fracture of the L1 vertebrae is what they called it. I don't want to dwell on the accident, I see it as a bit of bad luck to cause the accident, followed by a lot of good luck that it wasn't a lot worse.

This has left me with a bit of a challenge in terms of getting where I want to be in my climbing. Basically I boulder a lot more than I sport climb, but now it looks as though I won't be bouldering for a long time due to the impact it will cause to my back. However (fingers crossed) I should be able to route climb by early January.

SpecificsI currently am limited to sitting on my arse, and hanging from a hangboard. I can walk around a bit but not all day, should be able to start cycling in about a week.

We train at a mates place twice a week, they have a hangboard I can use, other than that I have a chin up bar at home, may be able to put rock rings on it. I have access to the uni gym for weights etc.

What I want is to build up my endurance from being quite poor to where it won't be an issue when I start route climbing next year, I don't want to put on weight (should be able to control that with my diet) and I really don't want to loose too much strength.

Has anyone done much endurance training without getting on a wall? Can it be done on a hangboard?

Im pretty happy to try weight training for strength, so long as it's not going to strain my back. Does anyone have experience with this type of thing? Any help would be much appreciated, or maybe if you know a witch doctor who can grow bone fast that would also be rad.

I broke L4 and was climbing 1 week later. I lead immediately, but, stopped for about 6 weeks just in case I fell (didn't want the jarring feeling on my back). I was cleared to climb by my doctor, in fact I was free to do anything I wanted as long as it didn't hurt.

When I had surgery on my feet, I had to quit climbing for six months. Staying in shape was much harder. Four days after surgery I started training with a personal trainer and although I have recovered from my foot surgery by two years, I haven't quit seeing the personal trainer. I highly recommend the trainer route. They really push you and help you develop muscles/capabilities that you don't normally hit when climbing. For example, my legs were pretty weak when I started and my trainer has really helped me increase my leg strength. So much so that I can really see a difference in my climbing endurance, stamina and overall ability to rely more heavily on my lower body. When I returned to climbing after the six month hiatus, I was stronger than before I quit.

Swimming could be good once it settles down a bit more, shouldn't be far off. Yeah they basically said if it doesn't hurt I can do it but avoid jarring things, like running. Problem is at the moment everything hurts.

Figure it could be an opportunity to work on opposing muscles to climbing ones as well.